In both military and law enforcement operations it may become necessary to gain forced entry into buildings where such entry by normal means is denied. Some examples of such situations may include the rescue of hostages or the interdiction of serious criminal activity. In such situations the more conventional means of forced entry by the use of rams or sledge hammers and the like may be rendered ineffective by the particular structural or barricaded entry conditions of the building.
In such situations the only recourse may be to use explosive entry techniques. These are high risk operations, with known methods making use of metal fragments to effect penetration at the desired point of entry, with risk of injury to the occupants of the building, or even of the operational personnel.
Numerous forms of linear shaped charges may be employed for these purposes as well as for a range of civil applications, particularly in controlled demolition work. Known systems suffer from a number of shortcomings depending on the particular application and the type of charge system. Thus those systems which employ rigid metal liners cannot be applied to curved surfaces and the metal ejecta generated by the liner presents a danger to personnel. Malleable linear charges are known but only allow relatively limited bending.
It is an object of the present invention to offer systems of forced entry using explosive means in which the explosive effect is limited to an extremely short range, or otherwise addresses or ameliorates the above disadvantages.
Notes
    1. The term “comprising” (and grammatical variations thereof) is used in this specification in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including”, and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of”.    2. The above discussion of the prior art in the Background of the invention, is not an admission that any information discussed therein is citable prior art or part of the common general knowledge of persons skilled in the art in any country.    3. The term “tamping” as used in this specification generally indicates a reactive body or substance serving to restrict or direct an explosive discharge; analogous to the tamping of material above a bore hole charge for example.